LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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23 






BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE 



CHARLES STEARNS WHEELER, A.M., 



WHO DIED AT LEIPZIG, 



JUNE 13, 1843 — AGED TWENTY-SIX YEARS. 



Bit W. A. D. 



BOSTON: 

JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY 

1843. 



BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE 



CHARLES STEARNS WHEELER, A. M., 



WHO DIED AT LEIPZIG, 



JUNE 13, 1843 — AGED TWENTY-SIX YEARS. 



By W. A. D. 



& 



BOSTON: 

J A M E S M U NROE AND CO M l J A N Y 
1843. 



& 



6 



'^ 







Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 18-1:3, by 

James Munroe and Company, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 









I 



II 



HOST o N : 

THURSTON, TORRY AND CO., PRINTERS, 
13 Devonshire Street. 



BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE 



It is just four years since a young man in the vigor of 
his early manhood was offering to the public, through the 
medium of a periodical, a tribute to the memory of two 
cherished friends, who had been called away from the 
earth in the morning light of their promise. And now 
another young man is sadly turning to write a feeble ex- 
pression of his appreciation of that former biographer, 
within a few months himself called to another and a 
holier life, to join, we trust, in glad communion with the 
friends whom his youthful heart has mourned and his 
pen commemorated. 

Charles Stearns Wheeler, a graduate of Harvard 
University in the class of 1837, the biographer of Charles 
Hayward, Jr. and Samuel T. Hildreth, is now gone from 
us, and in a foreign land are buried the earthly remains 
of him whom we propose to notice. 

Born in Lincoln, a town in the vicinity of Boston, and 
in early life educated in the simplicity and the sincerity 
of a New England country home, he entered Harvard 
University as a member of the Freshman Class of 1833. 
To the attainment of this end, the cherished aim of his 
boyhood, he had personally contributed no small amount 
of labor. The routine of study which forms the usual 
condition of admission to the portals of our Universities, 
was not the only requisite for our friend. An almost in- 



satiable love for information had created in the mind of 
the boy a want of books, and an imperious demand for 
extended facilities for instruction ; and the means for 
gratifying the want and satisfying the demand were in 
part to be obtained at the cost of personal labor in a 
field other than the school room and the study. But the 
impediments of somewhat restricted pecuniary circum- 
stances could do little to oppose the progress of a deter- 
mined mind, which would have culture, and which strug- 
gled in consciousness of its own capacity for improvement. 
A quick intelligence, a retentive memory, and a com- 
mendable and unwearied industry characterized the earlier 
years of the collegiate career of Mr. Wheeler. With the 
unsophisticated freshness of the country, the young stu- 
dent had brought the open heartedness, the honesty, and 
the joyousness which had been engendered and developed 
in the atmosphere of his happy home. The affability of 
his manner was an introduction to the kindness of his 
heart, and the friend whom his bright face and kindly 
smile had first attracted, was confirmed and secured in 
his interest by the knowledge of Mr. Wheeler's true and 
constant regard. Most endeared to those who knew him 
best, he was one who knew no enemies. The amiabili- 
ty of his character forbade him to nourish in his own 
breast any spirit of ill-will. 

The earlier years of undergraduate life had made Mr. 
Wheeler esteemed as a friend ; the later period made him 
respected as a scholar and a thinking man. At the Com- 
mencement in 1837, the second honors of the University 
fell to his lot, and his performance on that occasion was 
worthy of his place. For some months previous to the 
termination of his senior year, he had, with characteris- 
tic industry, been engaged in the work of teaching, and 
after his graduation this labor was continued and in- 



creased. As a teacher of boys he was kind but energet- 
ic, considerate but accurate, firm but not severe. The 
affection of his pupils and the confidence of their friends, 
it was in almost every case his good fortune to secure. 
The labor of instruction was lightened to him by a high 
appreciation of the importance and the utility of his pro- 
fession, and to be in one or another form a teacher was 
the business which he proposed to himself in life. 

In the winter of 1838 - 9 a vacancy occurred in the 
Greek Tutorship of Harvard University, which Mr. 
Wheeler was called upon temporarily to fill, and a full 
confirmation in the office soon succeeded to the first pro- 
visional appointment. In this way he became a member 
of the government of the University in which he had 
been educated, and towards the instructions of which he 
had from his early childhood eagerly turned. The rela- 
tion with his Alma Mater which was thus established 
was continued till the end of the last academical year, at 
which period he resigned his office in contemplation of a 
tour and residence abroad. During the last two years of 
his residence at Cambridge he had also fulfilled the duties 
of Instructor in History, and had devoted no inconsider- 
able attention to studies in this department of education. 

Of Mr. Wheeler's life as a Tutor, we shall be led to 
speak somewhat in detail, since the maturest years of his 
short life were passed in the performance of the duties of 
this office. Entering unexpectedly upon its responsibili- 
ties, he assumed the instruction of a class of young men 
in a course of study to which his previous tastes had not 
particularly called his attention. Though a good classi- 
cal scholar to the extent which was reached in the estab- 
lished collegiate course, he had not devoted that critical 
attention to Greek literature which enables one to instruct 
with perfect readiness, in the certainty of full preparation 



for any question which may arise. But industry can 
overcome disadvantages greater than these, and we confi- 
dently assert, that even in the earliest period of his tutor- 
ship, Mr. Wheeler never failed to his pupils, and never 
disappointed the hopes which had been based upon his 
performance of duty. In his relations to the young men 
under his care, he was friendly and kind. Anxious to 
break down a certain wall of separation which is but too 
apt to arise between the teacher and the taught, he was 
always ready to welcome students as his friends, and 
would devote to them a personal attention beyond the 
limits which the calls of official duty required. As a 
member of the board of internal government, he was ac- 
tive and energetic, seeking rather to prevent than to de- 
tect transgressions. We are well aware that at a former 
period a different opinion prevailed, and that a temporary 
excitement had served to establish for a while a very 
false estimate of the character of our friend. But that 
excitement has disappeared with the circumstances which 
gave it rise, and with it has vanished that injustice and 
misrepresentation which for a time prevailed. The 
writer of this notice, a classmate and dear friend of him 
whom he now mourns, can offer his personal evidence to 
the kindness of Mr. Wheeler to the students under his 
care. In the course of an intimate acquaintance and in- 
tercourse, repeated instances of leniency to the full extent 
of conscientious discharge of duty, have fallen within 
his knowledge, and a free communication of sentiment 
on the subject of government, enables the writer to de- 
clare that the tutor, for a time so harshly treated, was 
then, as always, the considerate and kind-hearted friend. 
On this subject we have no wish to dwell. The ill-will 
to which we have alluded was but temporary, and has 
long since passed away. A pleasant contrast is to be 



observed in the proceedings of the class last under his 
care ; a class, which on the eve of his departure for 
Europe, presented with kindest words and grateful ac- 
knowledgments, a valuable gift of remembrance, which 
the manner of presentation made doubly acceptable to its 
receiver. It was a kind and a delicate sentiment which 
actuated these young men in the course which they pur- 
sued. The thought that their regard was fully apprecia- 
ted by him whom they respected and esteemed, will 
mingle pleasantly with their sad recollections of him and 
his early death. 

The labors of instruction and discipline were not the 
only ones which Mr. Wheeler, during his tutorship, per- 
formed. The preparation of an edition of Herodotus had 
occupied much time during the later part of his residence 
in Cambridge, and its last sheets had but just been yield- 
ed from the printers when its editor first went abroad. 
The diligent labor, the extended research which were be- 
stowed upon this work are known to the writer. A crit- 
ical notice of it would be misplaced here, and has already 
been offered through more suitable media, and from more 
competent hands. The accuracy and completeness of 
the work have done honor to the scholarship of the edi- 
tor, and favorable notices in journals of high authority at 
home and abroad, have served to manifest the apprecia- 
tion of the labor which was so freely bestowed. The 
accuracy of typographical execution in this work has 
been favorably and justly mentioned. The attention 
which ensured it was almost the last bestowed here, 
and had hardly ceased when Mr. Wheeler sailed for 
Havre. He had in contemplation further labor in this 
very field. In a letter he says, — "I have lately been 
inspecting the manuscripts in the University Library, and 
have at last, at Dr. Bahr's recommendation, commenced 



8 

the collation of Lysias in the edition of Reiske, with 
the oldest known manuscript of that author. The Dr. 
tells rne I shall learn so to estimate the difficulties, and 
to understand the doubts of editors better than I should 
in any other way." And in another letter received but 
two months before his death, the last which he was able 
to write to one who was his constant correspondent, he 
says, — 

" Bahr has offered me the use of his manuscript notes 
on Herodotus, made since the publication of his edition, 
and several weeks can be advantageously spent in their 
study. Very kind of him, is it not ? " 

And this study was to form a part of the work of the 
summer, which a tour in Switzerland was also to serve 
to occupy. That summer in its opening found him on a 
bed of disease, and ere half its earliest month had passed 
away, the clay-cold form was all that earth retained of 
the one \vho formed the resolutions. Talkest thou of 
the morrow ? Look down into the grave. Grievest 
thou then in its contemplation ? Look upward and be- 
yond it, and thou shalt see the light. 

Some lighter literary efforts relieved severer labors. The 
first two volumes of Macaulay's Miscellanies were pub- 
lished under the supervision of Mr. Wheeler. This publica- 
tion doubtless served very considerably to introduce to 
readers on this side the Atlantic, the brilliant Essays of this 
accomplished and celebrated man. Yet a pure and elevated 
taste had led Mr. Wheeler to form a modified apprecia- 
tion of his author, which while it fully acknowledged 
the great and remarkable merits of his compositions, 
fell short of a blind enthusiasm which prevented a per- 
ception of their defects. In a letter he says, — 

" Macaulay's article on Warren Hastings I have read 
with great interest. The article is one of Macaulay's 



best. So clear, so learned, so clever. You ask while 
reading it, is not this one of the greatest men ? But un- 
fortunately when you have got through you feel that 
you are no wiser nor better than when you began ; and 
that all this seeing and head-work might be spared for 
one glow of true feeling, for one beat of a tender heart." 

Is there not here the germ of a sound criticism on this 
writer, to whom expediency seems in literature as in pol- 
itics, so important and so controlling a motive ? a view 
of expediency based doubtless on keen insight, cool de- 
liberation, and naturally sound judgment, but not the 
less traceable to a consideration of advantage, with but 
slender regard for the abstractly true and right. 

"Impey," says Macaulay, " hanged Nuncomar in order 
to support Hastings. It is therefore our deliberate opin- 
ion that Impey, sitting as a judge, put a man unjustly to 
death in order to serve a political purpose." " But we 
look on the conduct of Hastings in a somewhat different 
light." 

And then follows an apologetic strain for the Governor 
and Head, of whom Impey was the selfish but subservi- 
ent tool; and the apology is — expediency — for "the con- 
viction of every native was that it was safer to take the 
part of Hastings in a minority, than that of Francis in a 
majority." And to attain this end the Brahmin Nunco- 
mar was hung. 

A more congenial labor had preceded the preparation 
of Macaulay 's Miscellanies for the American press. Mr. 
R. W. Emerson has, as is well known, published the 
Essays of his friend, Thomas Carlyle, and in the work 
of publication Mr. Wheeler bore a considerable part. To 
this work, from sympathy with the views of the author, 
and a high appreciation of the realness and sincerity of 
the man, he came with his whole heart. An acquain- 
2 



10 

tance to which this labor was an introduction, would 
doubtless have been ripened into personal friendship had 
Divine Providence permitted that meeting which had 
been one anticipated result of the visit to the older world. 

A kindred interest in another English writer induced 
him very recently to take measures to secure the repub- 
lication in this country of the Poems of Alfred Tenny- 
son, which have been but lately issued from the press of 
William D. Ticknor, in a style which will favorably 
compare with their trans-Atlantic original. In both the 
cases last mentioned Mr. Wheeler afforded his services as 
gifts of love, and in both cases a balance of proceeds has 
been transmitted to London to remind the authors of the 
estimation in which their talents are here held. The 
friendship of Tennyson would have been another result 
of a visit to England. In a letter bearing date Heidel- 
berg, November, 1842, he says, — 

" I have received a very kind letter from Tennyson, 
in which he talks of being of half a mind to join me in 
some part of my travels, and asks me to send him word 
beforehand of the time of my visit to England ; other- 
wise I might fail of seeing him. I count on a very kind 
reception from him some eighteen months hence." 

We come now to another important occupation of Mr. 
Wheeler during the years of his tutorship at Harvard. 
Previous to his graduation in 1837, he had determined 
to devote himself to the ministry, and this determination 
was never in his subsequent life left out of mind. Hav- 
ing devoted a portion of his time to the requisite studies, 
he was approbated to preach but a few weeks previous 
to his departure, and had for a few times assumed the 
duties of his profession in supplying the pulpits of his 
clerical friends. He was never connected as a student 
with the Divinity School at Cambridge, though he was 



11 

an attendant at certain of its lectures and other exercises. 
His idea of the duties of his office was enlarged and ex- 
alted. Conscious of the narrowing influence of certain 
of the pastoral relations as they exist ordinarily among 
us, it was his wish, as it would have been his aim, to 
avoid confining his sympathies, efforts, and affections to 
the limited circle of a parish or a sect. Himself an in- 
quirer and earnest seeker after spiritual truth, he was lib- 
eral in his toleration, and eclectic in his philosophy. Not 
a Swedenborgian, he found much of value and beauty 
in the works of Emanuel Swedenborg, and freely accept- 
ed and gratefully acknowledged all the good which was 
afforded at his hands. A student of philosophy, he was 
no man's blind disciple. A preacher of the Gospel and of 
Goodness, he wished to be no sectarian advocate. In 
sympathy and in form an Unitarian Preacher, he had a 
heart to love all holiness, and a mind to appreciate all 
worthiness and truth. Firm in his view while it was to 
him vital, he deemed it no shame to change, and could 
look back in recollection and forward in prospect of mod- 
ification, confident in the results of honest, earnest, and 
prayerful seeking after truth. In a letter written at New 
York, whither he had gone to embark, and on the very 
day of his departure, he thus speaks, — 

"I do not let myself realize the length of my absence 
from you. God bless you, and keep you. Whether we 
shall ever meet again on earth, he only knows ; but two 
who are so near and dear to one another must meet 
again ; if not here, then hereafter. I wish you to think 
of what I said to you when we were together in Rox- 
bury, as I feel that I have now nothing better to say than 
that. Two years may make me a wiser, and a better, and 
a loftier man ; but they will not so change me but what I 
shall be willing, nay glad, to tell you my best then." 



12 

The conversation here alluded to was held but just 
previous to his departure, and embodied his idea of 
Christ, and of the Sacrament of the Communion. It 
was his view as then attained, warmly and heartily real 
to him, but held Dot as immutable, not necessarily per- 
manent. That morbid feeling for consistency, which 
would prevent progress for fear of discordance, had no 
influence over him. We ask not that the tune of to-day 
shall resound henceforth forever in our ears, but only 
seek a harmony in the sounds that, occurring in close 
connection, go to form the tune. Though to-day's note 
be joyous, to-morrow's may be sad, and 3^et the instru- 
ment is still perfect, and the change is in the touch 
which sweeps its chords. 

Intellectual improvement, professional and general, was 
Mr. Wheeler's object in going abroad. It had long been 
his cherished wish to complete in Europe a course of 
study preparatory to any permanent establishment in life, 
and though circumstances of a domestic nature seemed 
for a time to rise up in opposition to the accomplishment 
of this plan, it was carried into execution, and in August, 
1842, he took leave of his numerous friends, and sailed 
for Havre, in view of two years' residence abroad. In 
conformity with his original plan, he proceeded to Hei- 
delberg, and in this ancient University City passed the 
winter of 1842 - 3, engaged in the acquisition of the 
German language, attendance on certain lectures, and 
study of philosophic and classic literature. The purpo- 
ses in furtherance of which this tour was undertaken are 
succinctly declared in a letter written to the present 
writer, soon after the death of a brother. He has spoken 
of the affliction which has befallen him, and of its 
possible influence upon his plans. As to his visit abroad, 
he says, — 



13 

" All will depend upon a conscientious view to be 
taken some eight months hence, of the advantages of 
going to Germany compared with those of staying at 
home. I shall not go to gratify any whim, curiosity, or 
love of distinction. But if I feel that I can probably 
become a wiser and better man, nobody will blame me 
for following my early passion." 

The visit thus conscientiously undertaken was careful- 
ly improved, and the history of the winter spent at 
Heidelberg is one of industry and progress. The first 
months were of necessity mainly devoted to the acquisi- 
tion of the language, and to this end an attendance on 
certain lectures was made subservient. Study, social 
intercourse, and the enjoyment of the scenery and the 
works of art of Heidelberg and its neighboring Mann- 
heim had served to pass the time quickly and pleasantly 
away, till in March last a change of residence promised 
increased advantages. In early March Mr. Wheeler 
reached Gottingen, and joined there a friend with whom 
the summer was to be passed in travel and in study. 
The last letter which the present writer received from 
him bore date at this city, and is in part as follows, — 

" We think to leave Gottingen on 3d April for Weimar 
and Jena, and shall divide that month between those 
cities, Leipzig, Dresden, and Halle. The operations for 
the succeeding months are yet undetermined." 

The next succeeding month was passed upon a bed of 
illness, and on the 13th day of June, death, with gentle 
hand, put a period to his earthly pilgrimage, and freed 
his pure and lovely spirit for a wider range and loftier 
teachings than this world in all its riches can bestow. 
A foreign land has received the remains of one who was 
so dear, and strangers' hands have hollowed out his 
grave. No mother's form was bending over his death- 



14 

pillow, no father's broken voice breathed over him a 
prayer. The eyes which have been brightened by his 
smile, had not the melancholy privilege of pouring their 
tears above his marble brow. The hands that had but 
lately grasped his own in a hopeful and a trustful fare- 
well, can never again renew their affectionate pressure. 
The word of love which bade him God-speed as he left 
us, can never again reach him who slumbers in his dis- 
tant grave. Sad, sad indeed, the thought that he is gone. 
Gone in his beauty, his manliness, his purity, and his 
love. Gone in the fullness of promise, in the gladness 
of his realized hopes. A whole-souled man is always 
but ill spared j how doubly sad the loss when youth and 
holiness have combined to make him dear. He has gone 
from us who loved him, and has left in many hearts a 
void which cannot, be filled. He was firm in his integ- 
rity, warm in his affections, white and spotless in his 
purity. Unwearied in industry, he was blessed with 
powers of intellect which enabled him to attain abun- 
dant fruits of his labors. Joyous and serene in tempera- 
ment, he was fitted to experience the world's best pleas- 
ures, and was armed to contend with its sorrows. An 
unruffled amiability of temper was eminently character- 
istic of Mr. Wheeler, and did much to endear him to his 
many friends. No recollection of past ill-nature can 
arise to shade our remembrance of him, no thought of 
past unkindness to chill our warm love for his memory. 
Life wore ever to him a smiling aspect, and its highest 
developements and its most homely experiences were 
alike the sources of gratitude and love. 

" Do what I will," he says in a letter, " all things will 
wear a shining and a smiling front, and so I cannot help 
smiles and laughter. Let me laugh then, ' for he who 
laughs much commits no deadly sin.' " 



15 

The letter which next succeeded that from which we 
have just quoted, contained intelligence of the death of 
a dear and affectionate brother, and it breathed a tone of 
confidence and love which comes home to the hearts of 
those who now mourn for him who wrote it. 

" You remember that in my last letter, I said that life 
would wear a cheerful look to me, do what I would. I 
feel bound to say that my state of mind is as cheerful 
now as at the time of writing that letter. I am not, nor 
do I care to be, in so riant a mood as then. But I now 
believe as a thing of faith what I have long held as a 
theory, the perfect manifestations of the Divine Love in 
the life of each one of us. So far as concerns the living, 
the saddest experiences are but the shadings in the pic- 
ture which Providence is ever painting. Sorrow that 
those we love are taken away is not wrong ; but faith 
that God holds the issues of life and death in his hands, 
and that nothing can take place without his will, will 
rob that sorrow of its sting. I have been called upon to 
taste a new cup of sorrow, and found that the pang of 
separation was sharper in this case than ever before ; but 
found also that I had not lived two years and three quar- 
ters since Hildreth's death for nothing. That event found 
me a boy ; this finds me a man ; that came upon me a 
dreamer of theories ; this finds me a believer. That event 
saddened my feelings for a time ; this, as I verily believe, 
has deepened my whole nature for eternity. I said then 
1 will resist evil ; now sin seems to me well nigh im- 
possible. My views of life are as cheerful as ever ; my 
thoughts of death far less unpleasant." 

Let us take example from him who has gone before ; 
in his own words we may read our consolation ; in the 
purity of his life Ave may realize how sin was to him 
well nigh impossible, how holiness is attainable through 



o6, 16 

sorrow and bitter tears. He was lovely and beloved, for 
he was earnest, pure, and true. Away from his home 
and his kindred, he met his Father's call. Absent, but 
thank God, not alone, he laid him down to die, and in 
calmness and serenity breathed forth his latest breath. 
By friendly hands were his falling eyelids pressed, and a 
voice of his native tongue was speaking his last farewell. 
Not for him should there be mourning, — not for him 
a single tear. For us has God sent sorrow, for we miss 
him and are lonely. But in us and around us his gentle 
influence lives, and with winning power he lures us to 
his own eternal home. A son, a brother, and a friend, 
he rests him now within a Father's love, and watches, 
we would fondly believe, over the parents, the brother, 
and the friends who are yearning here to meet him. Oh, 
is not the hope of that meeting a motive for holiness like 
his ? Is not the faith in a spiritual re-union a consola- 
tion in our grief? Let us bow in humble submission, 
and thank God that he has lived thus long, that he has 
lived for us. We will not repine that he has gone be- 
fore, for he was fitted to be a pioneer for Heaven. In 
his steps we would meekly follow, and trust in God that 
we fail not of his reward. 



